Alive
by miawweasley
Summary: "Kali found Brenner. He's alive." She blinked once. Twice. OR When an unexpected guest shows up at the cabin, El is reunited with Kali and her gang, and her worst nightmare becomes reality.
1. Chapter 1

It's summer, and El is _hot. _

The Party had thought it would be a fantastic idea to hang our at Hopper's cabin, even though El warned them there wasn't any air conditioning. They had _insisted _on it since Hopper wasn't home.

The board game they had been playing was abandoned as the group was strewn across the living room, fanning themelves; magazines and hands creating a handmade air conditioning system.

A loud pounding at the door had them all jumping about 20 feet in the air as it rang through the silence. El shot up and pushed everyone behind her, telling them to stay put as she walked over to the door.

Walking over slowly, she hesitantly opened the door, channeling her powers to be ready at any second. She called them off when she saw a particular punk with a mohawk standing in her door way.

"Shirley!" he said, grinning like the chesire cat as he pushed past her and into the cabin.

"Axel?" she asked, closing the door behind her. "What do you want?"

He laughed, looking at the scared faces of her friends huddled together on the floor.

"These your bitches?" he asked, grabbing an apple from a bowl and hopping up on the counter, looking around as he took a bite.

"What are you doing here?" she asked again, crossing her arms over her chest. He raised his eyebrows before grinning again.

"Little Shirley Temple is all grown up!" he said. He titled his head to the side before reaching out and grabbing a lock of her hair.

"Your hair has grown. You still look like a softie though," he said, frowning.

"Where's everyone else?" she asked instead.

"_So many questions!" _he said in an exasperated tone.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Dustin asked from the couch.

"Did Janey not tell you about her trip to Chicago?" he asked, smirking as he looked back to Eleven. She flushed a shade of red as Axel threw the apple behind him carelessly, making his way over to the couch.

"Well, thats an interesting, yet very, very long story, and we really don't have that time. I need Shirley Temple to come with me and we'll be all good, 'kay?" he said, studying all their faces.

"No, she's not going with you." Mike had spoken up, a determined look on his face, but the scared gleam in his eyes gave him away. Axel merely laughed, pulling out a pocketknife and shoving it in to Mike's face. Before words could leave Axel's mouth the knife went flying across the room and into Eleven's hand.

She quirked a brow. "Did you seriously forget I could do that?" she asked, unamused. He laughed and she folded the knife in order to close it, handing it back to him.

"I'll ask you again, what do you want?" He sighed this time, looking at her friends staring up at him.

"Maybe we should go somewhere more private to-"

"No."

"Excuse you?"

"Whatever you need to say you can say it here," she said. He laughed and ran a hand over his mouth, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, Jane, this is serious." There was an annoyed gleam in his eye that also mixed with concern, but El continued to stubbornly stand there with her arms crossed across her chest, now raising her eyebrows.

"I don't care." He sighed.

"Kali found Brenner. He's alive."

She blinked once.

Twice.

She stumbled backwards, slowly shaking her head. Mike shot up and grabbed her arm pulling her over to the couch. He threw an arm over her shoulder, but she didn't react. She just stared straight ahead, blankly, continuously shaking her head.

"What do you mean he's alive, we saw him die." Mike spoke for her, and the boys nodded their heads at his statement. Max just looked confused.

"I'm sorry— Brenner?" she asked. Lucas told her they would explain later, turning back to Axel.

"You owe us an explanation. Start with Chicago," he said.

Axel sighed, looking at the kids in front of him before glancing at his watch. He looked back up at them, repeating this several times before sighing and plopping down in Hop's armchair.

"I guess I've got a lot of explaining to do."

And explain he did.


	2. Chapter 2

"You were in a _shootout?" _Max asked, turning to her curly haired friend who had finally fallen out of her daze. "Awesome!"

"Uh, more like she abandoned us in a shootout," Axel muttered. El whipped her head at him.

"Well it turns out we had bigger problems back here, didn't we?" she snapped. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Where's Kali?" she asked, done talking about her trip to Chicago (and very thankful he left out the part about her almost killing a man).

Axel sighed in response. "She's at a hideout in Indianapolis with everyone else, I was sent to bring you." El nodded her head and walked out of the room, returning a few minutes later with a duffel bag.

"Wait!" Mike shot up, looking at El. "We're coming too."

The Party all nodded their heads and got up too.

"No, no, no, no," Axel said. "Way too dangerous, I'm not bringing a bunch of 5-year-olds along."

"We're 16, and we want to come. We've seen it all," Dustin said. Axel thought for a few minutes before begrudgingly nodding his head towards the door and walking out, all of them in tow.

"We need Steve," Dustin said. "He needs to come with us."

"I'm sorry, Steve?" Axel asked.

"Our friend, he knows about El and all," Dustin said.

Axel gave El a look. "How many people did you tell?"

"It was necessary," she said, still staring straight ahead.

"Fine, we'll get Stan and be on our way," Axel grumbled, not too pleased with the thought of bringing so many people with.


End file.
